Chicago Fed Chief Evans Prefers to Wait on Fed Rate Rise

Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans said today in an interview that he believes the Fed should keep its interest rates stable at their currently exceptionally low levels for “quite some time” and at least until June of next year.

Evans also indicated he wants to see signs that the U.S. economy has enough positive momentum to thrive without further central bank stimulus before starting to bump benchmark rates higher as the start of a widely anticipated Fed tightening cycle.

He was quoted by CNBC as saying that, “If you look at the risks, we ought to balance those and be concerned that sometimes coming out of zero … is really a difficult proposition for the economies. And so I’d like to be patient.” He also pointed out that, “The world economy is dictating lower interest rates around the world.”

Evans is commonly considered one of the more dovish of the Fed’s regional presidents. While he is not currently a regular FOMC member, he serves as an alternate committee member in 2014 and is expected to be voting on the Fed’s monetary policy decisions next year.